Psychological testing apparatus



P 1932- w. o. SNELLING 1,878,00

PSYCHOLOGI CAL TESTING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 4, 1928 2 Sheets-Shet 1 7-19Ciara 65* Has. Joseph 19C 2.1-6 21.2.1123. Apr: Aiica u mates 24-11fiepiuzs' Dertha Tianw '+76C 'l' 52 C 17.6 H95. Z4mi12 5 June. 12th5mi1=5 Georg Fig. I 2 Fig.5.

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INVENTOR Sept. 20, 1932. w. o. SNELLING 1,878,008

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 4. 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2INVENTOR sorting of objects of dissimilar nature.

Patented Sept. 20, 1932 7-TEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE- WALTER O. SNELLING,OF ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING APPARATUS.

Application filed October 4, 1928. Serial no. 310,236;

My invention relates toimprovements in psychological testing apparatusand more particularly relates to means for testing and measuring thosefactors of human intelli gence and manual dexterity involved in the Theprincipal object of my invention is to .provide new and improved meansfor accurately enabling the ability to. sort cards to befdeterminedunder entirely definite conditions.

Modern office procedure involves ,the frequent use of record cards ofvarious types,

and ability to sort cards in accordance With some predeterminedcharacteristics is an important part of the workof many employees. Oneof the objects'of my invention isto provide means by which the abilityofan appli cant for employment. in such work as the sorting of cards canbe determined with a high degree of accuracy and with the'mini mumexpenditure of labor on the part of the examiner. r

I have found that when a plurality of cards containing a series ofsequential symbols, such as numbers running from one to sixty,

or letters running from Ato Z,'or the names of objects running from apeto zebra, for example, are dlsarranged or shufiled until an entirelyhaphazard order has been pro duced, the time and effort required torearrange the cards in the orlglnal orderly sequence is variable,and isdependent upon the laws of chance. "For example, in shufliing a set ofcards containing the letters of the alphabet from A'to Z, until allsemblance of the'original sequential order hasbeen lost, and'thenexamining the sequence of the let ters in the thoroughly shuflied cards,it will be found that in one or two cases out of a V v thousand, 1naccordance wlthwell known laws of permutations andcombinations, the

haphazard arrangement of the cards will, from chance alone, bear acertain partial re lationship that will either notably assist or notablyhinder the sorting of the cards, the order being in favor of the sortingin half of the trials, and against the sorting, in the other half of thetrials. Taking the two letters M and N, for example, it will readily beseen that in onehalf of any number of'random 'arrangements, M willprecede N, and thus favor the SOItiIlg of the cards, while in the otherhalf of the number of random arrangements, N will precede M, and thusoppose ease of sorting of the cards. hat is true of these two'letters,when considered alone, is equally true of every other pair of twoletters, and out of say one thousand entirely random arrangements of theletters of the alphabet, in accordance with the strict rules ofpermutations and combinations and wholly uninfluenced by carelessness inshuffling, there will always be found a few 4mm dom arrangements inwhicha considerable number of letters will bear the same order suchcards Were-disarranged from the origi; fnal orderly sequence and werereduced 'toan haphazard arrangement accordlng V entirel to the -nown'laws of permutations and com I binations, the results obtained in thetesting of these applicants would not be fair, and would not trulyrepresent the ability of the applicants to sort cards. A certain numberofapplicants, merely as a result of the works ings ofthe laws ofchance,wou ld be required tosort cards inwhich an abnormal number of theindividual cards were in the hard or reversed order from their naturalarrange ment in the-alphabet, and an equal number of applicants would,also as a result of the working of the laws of'ch ance, receive "cardsin which-a considerablenumber of the letters were in their naturalsequential arrangement as in the alphabet, or at least in-the ordero'fsequence; The letter M, for example,might not immediately precedetheletter N and im-L mal shuffling in accordance with the laws ofpermutations and combinations, no system of sorting cards from ahaphazard" arrangev ment can possibly be equally fair to a numher ofapplicants tested, some of the haphazard arrangements being invariablyeasier to sort than others, and other arrangements beingmore diiiicultto sort than the average, even though the average of the hardcombinations and the easy combinations equal zero.. This hasled me tothe conclusion that in testing sorting ability it is desirable to havethe testing cards. arranged initially the: same foreveryapplicant, inorder that no applicant may find the cards in a more favorablearrangement than another, and one of the objects of myv presentinvention is to enable a plurality of cards to be progressively sortedin accordance with a number of entirely different sorting arrangements,without requiring a large amount of work upon, the part of the examinerin thearranging of the cards. Although this desired end may. at firstseem impossible of attainment, it can be readily ate tained by themethod herein described, and a number of applicants can be tested forcard sorting ability by an examiner each applicant sorting cards from aprearrangedv condition to a sequential condition with respect to somecertain named sequence, without requiring any sorting of the cards bythe ex aminer for the purpose of putting such cards in the requiredinitial order.

- In the drawings forming part of this ap- V plication Figure 1represents one card of a setprepared in accordance with my presentinvention. Figure 2 represents another card from the same set from whichthe card represented in Figure 1 is taken. Figure 3 represents stillanother card, from the. same set from which thecard represented inFigure 1 and Figure 2 are taken. These cards are shown diagrammatically,and with the omission of all letters and markings that are with} outsignificance in connection with the present invention, the purpose ofthe drawings being-to show only such markings as will enable theprinciple underlyingm-y present invention to be understood. Figure e'andFigure 5 represent cards number 12 andnumber 47 respectively, from a setof sixty cards of a slightly dilferent type than the cards shown inFigure 1, Figure 2 'andFigur'eB;

is no fir'edarran'gement upon the card for any particular symbol andtherefore any particular symbol may occur in any one of the sevenpositions upon the card 1 occupied by the markings shown. This pack ofthirty cards may be arranged in the order of the numbers shown attheupper left hand corner of the card, or may be arranged in the orderof the left hand number of the hyphenated pair, or

may be arranged in the order of the right hand number of the hyphenatedpair, or may be arranged alphabetically by the first letter of the boysname, the first letter of the 'girls name, etc. If an applicant receivesthe cardsarranged numerically in ascending order of the card number asshown in the upper left hand corner of the card, and then rearranges thecards successively in the order of the first number of the hyphenatedpair, the second number of the hyphenated pair, etcauntil as a final actof sorting the cards are rearranged numerically in ascendingforder ofthe card number'as shown on the upper left hand corner of the card,,aperfectly definite task has been performed. Accordingly, the timerequired by any applicant to sort and resort the cards, in the mannerindicated, may be used as an accurate measurement of card sortingability, as distinguished from the less accuratemeasurement of cardsorting ability at;- tained by the rearrangement of cards from haphazardor shufl'led arrangement as ordinarily used. 7 I

Figure 4; and Figure 5 represent two cards taken atrandom from a packerdeck of sixty cards, of somewhat more convenient form thanthe cardsrepresented by Figure 1, F igure 2, and Figure 3. 1 These cards arepreferably of the standard 3 x 5 size used in card index files, and aredivided by a horizontal central doubleline into arr-upper and lowerhalf, eachiof which may contain related symbols, to be used eitherseparately ortogether.

Thus, for example, a set of sixty cards may 7 be rearranged 'inaccordance with any desired symbol shown on the top .half'of the card,or any desired symbol shown on the bottom half of the card, or ifdesired the central double line may be ignored,- for the purpose ofintroducing a new variable, and related symbols, such as the name of acity, or a temperature or a date, maybe taken from either the topjhalf,of the card or the bottom half of the card. In all cases, however, analpha: betical or a numerical or some .other definite standard-ofsorting is employed, sothatthe task of sorting isentirely definite.

Figure 6 and Figure 7 show a novelmeans that may be employed to simplifythe work of the examiner or checker, in making sure that the personbeingexamined actually corre'ctly performs each of the sorting operations. InFigure 6 a'pack of sixty cards is shown, .the cards having been arrangedin ascending order of the first number of. the hyphenated pair, which inFigure 6 will be found on the third line below the double line, in thefirst long square at the left hand side of the card. After the cardshave once been properly so sorted, with'a figure 1 before the hyphen onthe top card, and a figure before the hyphen on the bottom card, and,

with all the intermediatecards sequentially arranged in accordance withascending values of the number on the left hand side of the hyphen, adiagonal line is drawn across one edgeof the card, as showndiagrammatically on the upper edge of the pack as represented byFigure6. Figure? shows the same pack or deck of SiXty cards, when rearrangedin accordance with the lastnumber of the hyphenated pair, a similar diagonal line having been drawn across the top edge of thedeck,asrearranged in this second sequential manner. t will be evidentthat when the-cards are arranged sequentially in accordance withascending orders of the first number of the hyphenated pair, a readilyvisible diagonal line will appear across the left half'of the top edgeof the deck, while when the cards have been arranged so as to besequentially in order of ascending values of the second number of thehyphenated pair, the diagonal line on the lefthand side of the top edgeof the card will be broken up into a series'of dots and short dashes dueto proximityof one or more dots, while the right hand edge of the cardwill show a clearly defined diagonal line,

when the rearrangement of the cards by the second number of thehyphenated pair has been completed. By providing corresponding diagonallines on the sides and bottom edge of the cards, a series of readilydistinguishable guidesare available, each corresponding to some definitearrangement of the cards. Practical tests have indicated that even onecard out of its proper arrangement can be readily detected by theexaminer, thusvindicating any error or errors'in the sorting operation,but as the marks thus made use of by the examiner appear upon the edgeof the card only, and are so small to be substantially indistinguishablewhen any single card is exam1ned, apart from other cards, thls edgemarking is of no assistance to the person taking the test, but enablesthe examiner by simple inspection of the edge of the deck to determinethe completeness with which the cards have been sorted in accordancewith any given sequence, and to detect any error that may have been madein such sorting operation. 7

In the practice of my present invention I prefer to employ a series offrom sixty to three hundred cards, each card containing a number of;symbols, each symbol forming part of a sequence or series. Forsimplicity, I will take as an examplea set of twentysix cards, as thisnumber-represents a convenient number-of cards to clearly show theprinciples of the present invention. Each of the cards may convenientlyvbe first given a number, thefirst card being marked number 1, the secondcard being marked number 2, the third card being markednumber 3, and soon in order, the last card being marked number 26. Upon the completionof the marking of the numbers upon the twentysix cards, they will form asequence of twenty-six numbers from one to twenty-six. The cards shouldnext be shuffled repeatedly, until they are, arranged in an entirelyhaphazard manner, with respect to the numbers first marked upon them,and when they have been disarranged to a desired condition of disorderlysequence of numbers, the cards are stacked,and upon the topcard iswritten a girls name beginning with the letter A, such as Alice, forexample, and upon the next card fromthe top is written a girls namebeginning with the letter B, such as Bertha, for example, the third cardis similarly marked with the name Clara, the fourth card with the nameDaisy, etc. When all of the twenty-six-cards have been thus marked,thecards will represent a number sequence, when orderly'arranged fromfigure 1 to figure 26, and a name sequence, when arranged alphasbetically by girls names, but there will be nosimple relationshipbetween the one sequenceand the other. T he cards should now be againshuffled thoroughly, and after stackf ing should be marked with a thirdsequence, which for convenience we will assume to be a set of dates. Thefirst card might be marked January 3, 1900, and the next card could bemarked February 14, 1900, and so on through the entire twenty-six cards,each one being marked with a different date, and the entire series beinghereinafter called the date sequence. T he cards should then 7 be againshuflled,stacked, and each card should then be given a symbol of afourth sequence. This fourth sequence can conveniently be geographicalnames, the first card being, for example, markedAustria, the second cardbeing marked Brazil, and the last card being marked Zanzibar. Anydesired number of additional sequential series may be given to thecards, as for example, boys namesfrom Adam toZachariah, the names ofchemicalelements fromaluminum to zirconium,v

the names of animals from ape to zebra, etc., the number of-suchsequences that can be used being practically unlimited, and the cards ofeach sequence being entirely haphazard with respect to the arrangementof the symbols on the cards of any other sequence. 1

In employing a set of twenty-six cards made in accordance with mypresent invention, the cards are first arranged in orderly sequence fromone to twenty-six, and are handed to the subject to be tested 7 while soarranged. The subject is first told to arrange the cards alphabetically,ac cording to the names of boys, and the time required to so arrange thecards is noted by the. examiner. It will be observed that in the veryact of sorting the cards according to an alphabetical arrangement ofboys names, the cards are necessarily rearranged as to every othersequence upon them, .and as the cards start from a fixed initialarrangement toa fixed final arrangement, the work involved is exactlythe same for every subject tested. Upon the subject of examinationcompleting the rearrangement of the cards in the order of boys namesalphabetically in order, the time required for this step is again taken,and the subject is re quested to rearrange the cards according to thedate upon each card,the earliest date, to come first, and-each date tofollow in date order. Again the time required is determined, and uponthe completion of that 9 step the cards are again sorted by the subjectin accordance with the orderly arrange ment of the next sequence. Thefinal step in the testing is of course to-have the applicant arrange thecards in numerical order i by the card numbers that were first given tothe cards.

"When tested in accordance with the above procedure, eachapplicant'receives the cards in exactly the'same condition asevery otherI applicant, and in each step of sorting disarranges the cards'withrespect to the next succeeding sequence. Upon completing the sorting ofthe cards according to each of the v sorting operations required thecards again 7 present invention, I will take the sorting of a set oftwenty-six cards, of which the cards shown in Figure 1, Figure 2 andFigure 3 may be considered as illustrative and as representing threecards taken from a set of twentysix. It will be noted that the positionsoccupied by'the various symbols is not the same on the different cards,with the exception of the sequential number of the card, which forconvenience should always be placed in the same position upon each card,this position being preferably at the extremeright hand end of the topline of each card. The position upon the cards of the boys name, thegirls name, the date, the distance, the'temperature, etc. shouldpreferably be a random arrangement determined by chance. As additionalvariables the type used in printing the names in certain sequences, thecolor of ink used in printing symbols, etc. may all be changed tointroduce new factors of variation.

Given such a set of cards arranged initially in sequential orderaccording to card numbers, each subject under examination is required tosuccessively sort the cards in accordance with each of the series ofsequence and is finally required to rearrange the cards in sequentialorder according to card numrangements according to the laws of'permuta-vtions and combinations are "avoided. Thus, by my invention, the twodifiiculties which have been inseparably connected with all previousmethods of testing sorting ability are obviated, and by the use of cardsas herein described the sorting ability of the different subjects can beaccurately, simply andquick- 1y determined, without any elements ofchance that might either favor or oppose the subject being present. v i

It will be evident that many modifications may be made without departingfrom the spirit of the disclosure asherein made. By employing differentcolors in the forming of the individual symbols upon the cards as here'-in described, or by employing different sizes and styles of type in theprinting of the symbols, either as individual symbols or as series ofsymbols, a vast number of sorting arrangements becomes possible, and asingle pack of cards may be used for testing sorting ability rangingfrom such simple tasks as bringing together all cards bearing redmarkings, blue markings, etc., to such complicated tasks as the sortingof chemical elements in accordance with their atomic number, or thearranging of cities in accordance with. their geographical location as asecondary factor of alphabetical order, and other like tasks involving ahigh order of intellectual ability. invention is not limited to the typeof'cards as herein illustrated, as these cards have been shown forpurpose of example only, and with the object of more fully explainingthe principle of my invention.

I claim:

1. A pack of psychological testing cards comprising a plurality of cardseach bearing a plurality of symbols each of which forms a part of anindependent sequential series of such nature that the arranging of thecards in sequential order of the symbols of any such series correspondsto the shuttling of the cards with respect to the disarrangement of thesymbols of another series.

2. A pack of psychological testing cards comprising a plurality of cardseach bearing a plurality of symbols each of which forms a part of anindependent sequential series of such nature that the arranging of thecards in sequential order of the symbols of any such series correspondsto the shuffling of the cards with respect to the disarrangement of thesymbols of every other series.

3. A pack of psychological testing cards comprising a plurality of cardseach bearing a plurality of face symbols each of which forms a part ofan independent sequential series of such nature that the arranging ofthe cards in sequential order of the symbols of any such seriescorresponds to the shuffling of the cards with respect to thedisarrangement of the symbols of another series, and a plurality of edgesymbols, each edge symbol corresponding to some face symbol of a relatedseries.

4. A pack of psychological testing cards comprising a plurality of cardseach bearing a plurality of face symbols each of which forms a part ofan independent sequential series of such nature that the arranging ofthe cards in sequential order of the symbols of any such seriescorresponds to the shuffling of the cards with respect to thedisarrangement of the symbols of every other series, and a plurality ofedge symbols, each edge symbol corresponding to some face symbol of arelated series. 7

V In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name this 3rd dayof October, 1928.

WALTER O. SNELLING.

